US network CBS on Sunday aired an interview with Don Jackson, head of threat intelligence at Atlanta-based company SecureWorks, producing a picture of Finnish schoolchildren and claiming they were hard-shell Russian hackers.

Following a torrent of negative comments on the CBS video feed website, the broadcaster simply edited out the embarrassing part of the interview with Mr Jackson, only to be accused of failing to stand up to its blunders.

In the broadcast version, Mr Jackson told a CBS reporter that "part to of my job is to know the enemy, to know our adversaries" before showing the photo of the "Russian hackers".

In the photo, posted on a Finnish website that pokes fun at far-right groups, one of the pupils is wearing a bomber jacket emblazoned with the Finnish coat of arms, with another donning a baseball cap advertising a brand of Finnish lager.

Pekka Turpeinen, the headmaster of the Taivalkoski parish comprehensive school, was quoted as saying by Oulu-based daily Kaleva that he knew some of the children in the picture, adding it had been taken about five years ago.

STT